Heavy migration down the East Coast

Strong northwest flow over the northeastern US triggered heavy migration into the mid-Atlantic region last night. Here’s the radar from 8:00pm last night through 5:00am this morning.

Frames are every 1/2 hour. Click on the thumbnail to view the full-sized animation.

Happy Halloween everyone! Well, if you’re out looking for treats today, you may want to head south to Cape May because the southeast tip of New Jersey should be littered with goodies this morning. Judging by the radar most birds were pulled from the eastern seaboard, and to a lesser degree from western NY and the Great Lakes region, but with the strong northwest winds north of the Great Lakes one should never rule out the possibility of a western vagrant. The raptor flight should be good again today, as it was yesterday, increasing the possibility of Golden Eagles and Northern Goshawks along the Kittatinny Mountains.

It’ll be very interesting to hear about species composition of this flight, so if you head out today, please make sure to stop back and let us know what you saw… there may even be a little candy in it for you.

Good BOO! (rding),
David

P.S. Come check out my haunted migration forecast for the Mid-Atlantic on Birdcapemay.org

Nice. Yeah- I meant to post this morning. The interior was “bumpin'” this morning, with MANY sparrows around HMF (I didn’t have time to work through them… taking care of the little Wren these days). I did spy a few Purple Finches and heard a plethora of Golden-crowned Kinglets, a few Sapsuckers and lots and lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Late fall is indeed much more productive in the Piedmont than is early fall, IMHO.

Agreed. I wonder if that has to do with actual shifts in migration patterns across the state (favoring more inland routes as the weather gets rougher) or purely that late-migrants tend to have more affinity for your “average” Piedmont mixed field/meadow/hedge/woodland site?